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Short answer resting on something at a comfortable height for your arms and way you are sitting.
Longer answer -

Dogen mentioned this much about it:

Originally Posted by Shobogenzo:Fukanzazengi

Then put the right hand above the left foot,
and place the left hand on the right palm.
The thumbs meet and support each other.

Full lotus allows you a natural mudra rest however we all do not/cannot sit full lotus for various reasons and sitting in a stable/sustainable way is what is important more than forcing a pretzel. Depending on your body and sitting style - crotch pocket, mudra rest cusion, folded up small towel or on your folded legs/feet. What works with the way you are sitting to allow comfort (arms down too low and your shoulders tend to follow and the back too... too high well I find it feels like a big long shrug, straining.

PS. Just want to mention that for me, forming the mudra (without physically putting the hands together), helps me do insta-Zen, helps me to release the hand of thought in daily life. Sometimes the mudra just appears. DS.

In a spring outside time, flowers bloom on a withered tree;
you ride a jade elephant backwards, chasing the winged dragon-deer;
now as you hide far beyond innumerable peaks--
the white moon, a cool breeze, the dawn of a fortunate day

"Don't move your legs for your own convenience. Your legs are practicing their own zazen independently and are completely involved in their own pain. They are doing zazen through pain. You should allow them to practice their own zazen. If you think you are practicing zazen, you are involved in some selfish, egotistical idea."

That made me

Gassho,

Lisa

Last edited by ZenHarmony; 11-01-2012 at 02:21 PM.
Reason: added quote from page

I think he has a point. We don't practice Zazen. We don't do anything. We just let down the guard, let go of resistance, give up trying, allow Zazen to take place.
And even though we are still aware of our body and mind, there's no need to identify so strongly with either. Just let the body-mind sit Zazen without interference.
Sometimes when you sit like this, you become aware of pain in your legs or an itch, but it doesn't cause any anxiety. There's no rush to change anything. The legs are not YOU.

Gassho,
Pontus

In a spring outside time, flowers bloom on a withered tree;
you ride a jade elephant backwards, chasing the winged dragon-deer;
now as you hide far beyond innumerable peaks--
the white moon, a cool breeze, the dawn of a fortunate day

Pontus, you are here in a very Theravada style speech. Great speech by the way. In Mahayana, we just get everything and everybody together.
In other words, you are misreading Shunryu Suzuki. What he meant is utterly different. To really experience this: get everything out. OUT!!! and IN!!!

And here I thought Ol' Suzuki was going all Theravadin on me! And it was the other way around!

The legs are totally, utterly and completely ME!

I expressed myself clumsily. I didn't mean to say my legs were suddenly separate from me... And it wasn't my intention to talk about Buddhist doctrine. I wanted to describe the shift I sometimes experience during Zazen, when the self is starting to dissolve and it becomes clear that the monkey mind and sack of skin and bones is not all you are, that the true self includes so much more (everything).

Thank you for your patience with this fool!

Gassho,
Pontus

In a spring outside time, flowers bloom on a withered tree;
you ride a jade elephant backwards, chasing the winged dragon-deer;
now as you hide far beyond innumerable peaks--
the white moon, a cool breeze, the dawn of a fortunate day

I just took it to mean accepting the pain as-it-is during zazen, rather than focusing on it. Anyone who's lived with chronic pain knows the only way you get to distance yourself from the pain is to accept it.